A Mirror Darkly
by Intel Master
Summary: A meeting of minds! How was Sonja affected by her meeting with Lash, her double?
1. A Mirror Darkly

_Author's note: This is a pretty old fic, I think I wrote it sometime in October of last year. It's still one of my favorites, so I'm posting it now. As you can probably tell, it's based off the Advance Wars 2 mission _A Mirror Darkly_, which introduces the duality between Sonja and Lash. Not much else to say, hope you enjoy it!_

From the Battle Log of Sonja, Princess of Yellow Comet

_June 25th, 2067_

_Midwest Coast, Region 22_

_Mission: "A Mirror Darkly"_

_On June 18th, intel reached the main HQ about Black Hole forces in Region 22. I convinced my father that I should take command. False intel was leaked to Black Hole that there were no Yellow Comet forces deployed in said area. Taken by surprise, Black Hole was forced to fight. However, their current Commanding Officer, Lash (CO Profile), offered a wager. Her offer: If any unit of hers invaded the HQ, I would have to yield. I accepted._

_I took advantage of the canyon and deployed indirect combat units on the sides: 9 rocket squads, 3 artillery, tanks guarding the HQ: 2 light tank squads, 1 medium squad. Fog of War was present; obvious advantage. Lash's units rushed forward. Rocket squads eliminated them, tanks and mechanized infantry units moving into the valley to finish off her units. Battle ended after only 8 days, when Lash was out of units and was forced to retreat. Region 22 is currently safe._

_Casualties:  
__8 soldiers__  
4 tanks_

_Enemy casualties:_

_20 soldiers  
60 tanks (including recon and anti-airs)  
15 mobile artillery  
10 rockets  
2 APCs (Armored Personnel Carrier)_

Sonja slipped off her glasses and placed them beside her as she rubbed her eyes. She had just gotten back to the main Headquarters after her last battle. As was her habit, she immediately typed up the information on the battle into her computer. She was organized. She liked to keep records of and study previous battles. One did not become known as the Queen of Intel by not being efficient. Yet there was something about the mission that not even the facts and figures of the analytical report could summarize. It was nothing about the actual battle…No, more about Sonja's feelings. The battle had gone just as planned, with Black Hole falling for the false intel, getting trapped in the valley and being sniped out by unseen units. But one thing that Sonja had not planned for was what the opposing Commanding Officer had said when she was defeated. "_Oh well…at least I'll have plenty of pieces to play with!_" How could someone take the loss of their soldiers so lightly, so, dare she say it, optimistically? Sonja was revolted at how Lash seemed to take joy in the fact that she had lots of pieces of scrap metal from her totaled tanks to build new things with. But this was not the worst of it…

Sonja sighed as she reached her hand back to undo the band holding her hair back into a ponytail. Her dark shimmering hair fell down her back in one fluid motion as she leaned forward, resting her face in hand. She sighed again.

As Sonja sat lost in thought her father walked past her. Kanbei was the emperor of Yellow Comet. Well liked by his friends, feared by his foes, and sometimes a bit of a buffoon, he was nevertheless a source of comfort to Sonja.

"Daughter, are you alright?" He leaned over her and gently placed a hand on her shoulder. Sonja looked up at him and smiled slightly.

"Yes Father…I'm fine."

"You seem troubled. Ever since that battle earlier this day…are you sure you're alright?"

"Yes…yes, I'm fine. Thank you."

Kanbei smiled, patted his daughter on the shoulder, and walked out of the room, blue cape drifting behind him.

The sound of heavy boots pacing back and forth echoed around the polished lab.

_Clink, clink, clink, clink._

A young girl in a bulky black trench coat and thigh-high platform boots walked back and forth across the room. Lash didn't care about the loss of her units, but her superior Hawke seemed displeased about losing the foothold in Yellow Comet. Oh bother, thought Lash. The old fuddy-duddy needs to lighten up! He never has any fun. Not like me. _I_ know how to have fun. She giggled.

_You and I…we're the same, Sonja._

These were the words that had haunted Sonja ever since her return to the main HQ. She clearly remembered Lash, standing amid the smoking wreckage of her army, grinning as she talked to Sonja, who could only gape in shock at the small genius's words.

_You enjoy war like a good game of chess. Thinking over every piece…deciding which move will bring you victory…you'll feel it soon one day…the joy that war brings._

No, we're nothing alike.

"How can she not see it? We're the same." But on the outside, the two COs looked nothing alike. Oh, they both had black hair and brown eyes. But those were the only similarities. Sonja's hair was held in a simple ponytail, where Lash's exploded into an immense afro. Sonja's eyes were calm yet alert, full of intellect. Lash's had childish glint to them, as well as a fraction of madness.

They both were child prodigies. It was another similarity. And it was where the main difference was. "She's willing to sacrifice her units like pawns…and I'll send my stuff to blow up! Anything for victory!" Lash stifled a girlish giggle with a black-nailed hand.

Next to Sonja's computer there was a chessboard. She reached over and picked up one of the pieces, the white queen. She turned it over slowly in her hand. The piece was made of polished wood that was golden in color, ornately carved by an artisan. _You enjoy war like a good game of chess._ Sonja shook the words out of her head. No, I don't. I don't enjoy war at all. It's something I must do. I may view it in an analytical sense, thinking which move will bring victory…but I do not revel in it.

"Oh, she may think she's better then me, she may think she has compassion for the troops she sends to their death, but she'll see one day. She'll see that we're the same." Lash stopped pacing around the room. She tucked her hands into the pockets of her trench coat and wrapped her fingers around something small and metallic. It was a chess piece, made of bits of metal of destroyed tanks and ruined experiments, painted black. The black queen. "She'll see it soon…we are the same."

We may have similar tactics, but our morals are so very different. Sonja whispered as she tightened her grip on the chess piece. "I won't become like you, Lash."


	2. Brainstorm

_Author's Note: Yes, I realize that this was a one-shot, but people liked the first part and I had an urge to write more to it, so here it is. Of course, it's no longer a one-shot, so we'll call this Chpater 2 of a longer fic. Not much else to say, so read and enjoy!  
_

_Outskirts of Twin Crown Volcanoes, Sector 20_

_Omega Land_

1600 Hours 

This area of Omega Land is often choked with soot and ash from the twin volcanoes that dominate the landscape. The vegetation in this area is less green then it is beige, the sky less blue then gray. And war was raging in this bleak land.

There was the Bolt Guard, destroyers of lands, seekers of power on one side, and the Allied Nations, keepers of peace, on the other. The sleek, futuristic troops of Black Hole weaved in and out of the woods and methodically attacked the enemy. Indirects were carefully hidden behind the hills and in the dense forests, prepared to rain destruction upon their foes. The other side, clad in yellow, was mirroring the enemy's tactics. Troops carefully advanced and lined up. Infantry squads slipped into enemy lines with recons to capture properties. Walls of tanks and rockets slowly pushed forward. The tactics being employed by the Allied Nations were flawless.

But that all changed in a second.

The troops suddenly rushed forward and began to fire wildly on the Bolt Guard's units. Infantry scrambled onto the hills and dived into the deep grass to snipe out other soldiers. Tanks crashed through the forests at breakneck paces, their canons ripping through trees and machines alike. Indirects retreated to nearby cities and began to pump out shell after shell. It was chaos in its purest form. Soldiers on both sides were mown down, left and right. The gray fields soon were peppered with red. Utter madness.

"Oh, this is SO much fun! Bangbangbang! Take that, you sillies! WHEEEEEEEEE!"

A small girl sitting at a huge computer terminal was the source of all this carnage. Everything about the girl spelled "chaos": her dark hair flew in every direction, her black-painted nails were chewed down to various lengths and her outrageous boots reached up to her thighs. Right now she was laughing as though she had been set loose in a chocolate factory.

"Ooooh, didja SEE that sucker go KABOOM! Teeheehee, he's gonna go splat! Watch out Mr. Tanky…CRUNCH! Teeheehee!"

"Lash, can you _please_ stop?" said an exasperated voice from somewhere in the shadows. Sonja was lurking in the background, watching the havoc Lash was causing. Everything had been fine until Lash had taken over. Sonja had had this battle under total control, had planned out ever move and knew exactly what to do next. And then Lash had pushed Sonja away from the control terminal, yelling, "It's my turn to play now!" and, well, the results were obvious.

"Lash, do you even know what you're doing?"

"Yeah, makin' things go boom!" was the response. Lash giggled again. Sonja sighed and rubbed her temples wearily. What the hell had Rachel been thinking, putting Lash with her on this assignment? Rachel had said that this battle was very important, so what did she do? She put the loony girl on the job! Sonja could have been with her friend Sami, or with Jess, another very rational battler, but NOOOOOOOOOO, she had to get stuck with the crazy Goth girl!

"No, Lash, look…" Sonja stepped out from the corner where she had been standing and began to point out the various parts of the control system to Lash.

"Look, see the overview? The enemy has a strong force right here…looks like it's mostly Neotanks and artillery..." Sonja clicked a button and drew up a separate window providing intel on said units "...so we should probably send our rocket squad down there. Now, the enemy has few anti-airs deployed, so if we take our copter squadron here – " she pointed to the screen, where the copters were shown on the large map " – and move them down there, then we can get rid of the Neotanks before they can do much damage to – are you even listening?" Sonja asked, as Lash began to make hand motions that suggested that she was using an invisible sock puppet that was imitating Sonja's words.

"Duh. I _know_ how this works. I was one of the top tacticians in Black Hole!"

"So why the randomness?"

"That's my style. They don't know what's coming, they can't form a plan to counter."

"Well, your 'style' is costing us troops! We can't just throw them away!"

"Poo. You don't know how to have fun!"

Sonja was forcibly reminded of when she first met Lash, almost 10 months ago. "_At least I'll have plenty of pieces to play with!_"

Sonja shoved Lash out of the way, ignoring Lash's cry of "Hey!" and promptly sat down in the swivel chair in front of the vast controls. "I'll show you how this is done," muttered Sonja as she began to issue new orders. As chaotic as Lash was, Sonja was orderly and precise. Her fingers flew across the keys and dials at the control panels, images flashing up on the screen, reflected in her glasses. She began to issue orders to her troops again, making them take a far more orderly course of action. They fell back into formation and rank, and stopped relying so heavily on terrain cover. In fact, the enemy had less places to hide, thanks to the hacking Sonja had done early on in the battle. She had manipulated their intel so that they were less aware of the advantages the terrain offered. Just one more nifty skill the Queen of Intel had up her sleeve.

"Right then…Company C, I want you to take a wide sweep to the south, see if you can slip in on those factories the enemy has. Company J, take those battle copters and head off those Neotanks. And…looks like we have enough funds for some units." Sonja consulted a spreadsheet in the corner of the massive screen, which showed their daily income. "Yes…we'll need one Medium tank and one artillery…build the Medium tank in factory 3 and the artillery in 4…perfect."

"Nonono, look, I show you…" Lash shoved Sonja aside and sat back down in the chair. "Look, if they have all those rockets, we can easily counter them with a tank flood. Actually, mechs are more versatile. Let's get some of those little buggers! And we need to stay in the trees more, 'cause you're moving into the open, you great big silly…"

Sonja suddenly grabbed onto Lash's wrist and yanked it away from the control panels. "Look," she said in a tone of voice that would have done an aggravated mother proud, "we both have very different strategies and clashing personalities, but we have to shelf our differences if we want to win this. This battle's important for the Allied Nations. We have to work together."

Lash just stared at Sonja for a minute, and then finally, slowly, she nodded her head. "Great," Sonja grinned, and she then turned her attention back to the battle.

"Oh, crudmuffins…" Lash muttered.

"Crudmuffins" was probably not the word Sonja would have used, but Lash was right. The enemy CO had just activated his Super Power, and the Bolt Guard forces were now amplified in strength. Sonja and Lash watched in shock as the miniature black units on the screen rushed forward to slaughter their troops. Immediately the two girls jumped into action, punching in commands and shouting out orders to their troops.

"Fall back to the woods! They don't know your HP, jump around! Counter them, counter!"

"Go to the cities, the cities! Indirects, open fire! Make 'em go boom!"

"Tank squad Echo, form a wall and strike back!"

"Mech squad Bravo, over the mountains! Go!"

Two pairs of hands flew over the keys as separate images of all the troops sprang up on the screen. A window in the upper-left corner showed their overall battle statistics. Now they had 40 squads of troops…now they had 38…now they had 31…now the enemy was down by 2 but still had 40-some-odd left…now they had fresh units leaving their bases, but the enemy was doing the same…

"That System Crash is one nasty power," Sonja muttered as she began to tap out more commands.

"Not really, 's bit random, y'see. I've seen him do less damage then Flak with it!" Lash cupped both her hands around her mouth and began to shout "FLAKALAKALAKALAKALAK!" She broke down in helpless giggles as Sonja both rolled her eyes and tried to keep a straight face.

"Look, it's wearing off," Sonja said. And indeed, the enemy forces were slowing down, their strength was diminishing, and they were firing less and less often. "Looks like they're entering a cool-down period" Sonja said to herself. "Makes sense, given the power of that System Crash program." Lash pointed at the screen. "But they still got lots of troops comin'. We need to drive 'em back."

"Got a plan?" asked Sonja.

"Nuh-uh. But we have more income, so we should be able to drive them back after…oh, say…" Lash quickly worked out the problem in her mind. "…2 weeks."

"We haven't got that much time," said Sonja, shaking her head. "We need to eliminate the Black Hole forces in here within a few days."

The two girls were silent for a minute, drumming their fingers on the control panels, watching the endless streams of digital troops on the screen. Both of them could feel their CO powers building up inside themselves. As Sonja concentrated on the screen in front of her, a plan began to formulate in her mind. She slowly turned to Lash, who was sitting on her right.

"I think I got an idea," said Sonja.

"Me too," nodded Lash.

"Actually, it's better then an idea. It's more of a…"

"BRAINSTORM!"

The two COs said the last word together, and, as one, rose from their chairs and clasped their hands over their heads. The effects were incredible. Alone, the two COs Super Powers were astounding. Together…they were phenomenal. The effects of Sonja's Counter Break and Lash's Prime Tactics were applied to their troops simultaneously. The enemy troops suddenly found that they had almost no place to hide; bullets and shells flew through the grass and trees and buildings as if they weren't there, easily finding their marks. The Allied Nations' troops suddenly found that the grass around them had grown taller, the forests had grown wilder, and the buildings around them had become better fortified, and the mountains had become craggier. Vehicles' wheels and treads were no longer snagged in the uneven terrain; they flew across the battlefield as if it were all road. And when the Black Hole troops did fire on their enemy, they found that they could not hit them.

"We did it Lash…we made a Tag Power!"

"Oh wow…look at all the little people go BOOM!"

"This'll make things much easier," said Sonja as she sank back into her chair. A single Dual Strike could not wipe out an army of that size, but it would certainly help a lot. Sonja breathed a sigh of relief and sank one of her hands into a pocket. She pulled something out and began to turn it over slowly in her hands.

"Whatcha got there?" asked Lash. Sonja mumbled "nothing" and tried to put it away, but Lash was too quick for her. "Awww, it's a little tiny chessman! How cute!" squealed Lash.

"Yes, it is, could I have it back?" Sonja muttered in an embarrassed voice.

"Why do you have it with you? For luck?"

"I don't believe in luck, Lash," said Sonja, two small patches of pink on her fair cheeks. "It's just something I've always carried with me."

"Naw, that's okay. I've got one too!" Lash dug a hand in one of her cavernous pockets and pulled out another chess piece. She handed it to Sonja with a "see?" Sonja shuttered slightly when the cold metal chessman touched her palm. It was nothing like hers, which was made of golden wood and beautifully carved. This one was made of crudely welded metal, painted black. But Sonja quickly noticed that they had one thing in common. They were both the queen.

"Look, I'm gonna go get somethin' to drink. Be back in a sec!" And with a giggle, Lash swept out of the room. Sonja smiled happily. She was sure that this battle would be over within a few days. She could see already that the enemy was quickly being forced back. Sonja pulled up her chair and was about to type in more commands when she noticed that the black queen was still in her hand.

"Lash!" she called out. "You forgot your chess piece!" But there was no response. Sonja shrugged and slipped the chessman into her pocket. Perhaps she could grow to like it…

_Ending Notes:_

_ In my own little world, Jugger's CO powers are computer programs that, when activated, provide emergancy power. Jugger comunicates with his troops wirelessly, so his "powers" effect all his troops at once.  
I fealt that it made more sense to have, at least in this case, Tag Powers be two Supers stacked onto each other, rather then two Supers used one after the other._

_ Expect at least one more chapter of this fic to wrap everything up.  
_


End file.
